Michael Carter-Williams makes All-Rookie Team

(AP)

The accolades just keep piling up for Michael
Carter-Williams.

Thursday, the 76ers point guard was named to the NBA’s
All-Rookie Team. Earlier this month, Carter-Williams was named NBA Rookie of
the Year following a successful debut pro campaign, during which he led all first-year
players in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

Carter-Williams was a unanimous selection for the
All-Rookie Team, receiving 125 first-team votes. Orlando’s Victor Oladipo
picked up 124 of 125 first-team votes. Joining them on the First Team were Utah’s
Trey Burke, Brooklyn’s Mason Plumlee and New York’s Tim Hardaway.

The Sixers’ Hollis Thompson also received votes, but made
neither the First or Second Teams.

Your Sixers-related NBA Draft lottery primer

Tonight, at Disney/ABC’s Times Square Studios in New York City, the 76ers will discover their draft-night fate. They'll know the draft slot for their pick and New Orleans', and whether the Pelicans retain their selection or owe it to the Sixers as compensation for a trade last summer.

The Sixers find themselves pinning their hopes on the
ping-pong balls of the NBA’s Draft lottery for the 13th time in its
30 years of existence. Here’s a look at the mathematical odds for the Sixers’
pick in relation to particular slots in the draft:

(AP)

No. 1 … 19.9 percent

No. 2 … 18.8

No. 3 … 17.1

No. 4 … 31.9

No. 5 … 12.3

In addition to their lottery selection, the Sixers hold
the rights to New Orleans’ first-round pick – assuming the Pelicans don’t win
the lottery and land anywhere in the top 3. Here’s a breakdown of the Pelicans’
statistical odds in the lottery:

No. 1 … 1.1 percent

No. 2 … 1.3

No. 3 … 1.6

No. 10 … 87.0

No. 11 … 8.9

No. 12 … 0.2

No. 13 … 0.1

Other notes on the NBA Draft lottery:

The Sixers hold potentially two lottery selections:
theirs and New Orleans’. The Pelicans’ pick is top-five protected, so if they
“win the lottery” and land in one of the top-three picks, they would retain it.
The Sixers would be owed a top-five protected, first-round selection for the
2015 draft as future compensation.

The Sixers’ draft-lottery representative will be Julius
Erving. Last year, it was majority owner Joshua Harris.

As the Sixers’ good luck charm, Dr. J will bring with
him shards of glass from a backboard broken by Darryl Dawkins during a Dec. 5,
1979 game against San Antonio. Cherry Hill native Jake Spencer, the holder of
the glass bits, had his entry selected during a team contest in conjunction
with 97.5 FM The Fanatic.

Only four times has the team with the league’s
second-worst record won the lottery. The last occurrence was in 2009, with the
Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers finished with the league’s next-to-last mark,
at 19-63.

Only once have the Sixers won the lottery. That was in
1996, when they moved from No. 2 to No. 1 and selected Allen Iverson.

What MCW’s surgery means moving forward

(AP)

The player said it. His coach reiterated it.

Michael Carter-Williams, in the same breath, thanked
media members who voted him the NBA’s Rookie of the Year and then followed it
up by saying he’s unsatisfied with winning a personal award. The 76ers’ point
guard spoke Monday about pining for more, not only individual greatness but
aspirations of helping the Sixers reach the postseason.

That plan took a detour Tuesday, when the Sixers announced
that Carter-Williams had undergone successful surgery to repair a labrum injury
on his right shoulder. The team said there’s no timetable for the return of the
22-year-old.

What does the surgery mean for Carter-Williams?

For starters, it’s unlikely he will be available to
participate in either of the summer leagues. (The Sixers are expected to field
teams for the Orlando and Las Vegas leagues.) There’s no hard-and-fast recovery
time for a labrum surgery recipient, but it generally requires two to four
months. That timeline would put Carter-Williams in line to be ready for the
opening of training camp.

Beyond the summer leagues, Carter-Williams can forget
about fine-tuning his game. Monday, at MCW’s Rookie of the Year press conference,
Sixers coach Brett Brown spoke at length about the summer months being the time
when players make their most money, when they can watch gametape and focus on
improving one or two skills that had been weaknesses in the past season.

For Carter-Williams, those well-documented weaknesses
were his shooting percentage and his defense. Rehab on his surgically repaired
shoulder will prevent Carter-Williams from hoisting the thousands of shots he
was likely to take this summer. In addition, Brown’s desire to have
Carter-Williams work on his on-the-ball defense and keeping players in front of
him will have to be put on the back-burner as he turns his attention toward
injury rehab.

The immediate ramifications of Carter-Williams’ surgery
won’t be felt in the next few months. Instead, the will bear out when the
Sixers’ season begins.

Michael Carter-Williams undergoes surgery

(AP)

Michael Carter-Williams underwent successful surgery to
repair the labrum of his right shoulder, the 76ers announced Tuesday, and there
is no timetable for his return.

The surgery was performed by Dr. David Altchek, of the
Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the team said, and his rehab will be
monitored by the team’s head physician, Dr. Brian Sennett of Penn Medicine.

“The health of our players is our primary concern,”
Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie said in a statement. “There were a number of
healthy discussions between Michael, our medical team, several medical
specialists and Michael’s representatives. After careful consideration and
thoughtful research, we collectively agreed that it was in Michael’s best
interest to move forward with the procedure now and allow maximum recovery
time.”

The timing of the surgery would seem to put
Carter-Williams’ availability for the Sixers’ summer-league teams in jeopardy.
The soonest Carter-Williams, who on Monday was named NBA Rookie of the Year,
would have to be medically available is in October for the team’s training
camp.

Carter-Williams' durability was a popular talking point during his rookie season, as the Syracuse product missed 12 games with three separate injuries:

He sat out from Nov. 13-18, missing four games with a left foot bruise.

He did not play between Dec. 6-16, skipping seven games due to a skin infection on his right knee that required a brief hospitalization.

Sixers' Michael Carter-Williams named NBA Rookie of the Year

(Times staff /ERIC HARTLINE)

The offseason was on the
doorstep when Michael Carter-Williams, while seated at his Wells Fargo Center
locker, was questioned about postseason award voting.

Namely, the 76ers’ point guard
was asked whether he remembered a tweet from opening night, when Magic Johnson
needed nothing more than Carter-Williams’ near quadruple-double to declare him
the league’s Rookie of the Year.

“Of course,” Carter-Williams
said. “That is something I will never forget. It was a great compliment and it
was greatly appreciated.”

Johnson certainly took notice.
So did media members around the country.

Monday, Carter-Williams was
named NBA Rookie of the Year. He became only the second player in franchise
history to win the honor, joining Allen Iverson, who took home the hardware in
1996.

A 6-6 guard out of Syracuse,
Carter-Williams led all rookies in scoring, assists, rebounds and steals and
was often a bright spot in a bleak season.

It was believed the Sixers’
19-win campaign, amid the franchise’s rebuilding effort, would hinder
Carter-Williams’ case to win the award. Instead, he edged out Orlando’s Victor
Oladipo, 569 points to 364, to win the award and garnered 104 of a possible 124
first-place votes. Trey Burke of Utah finished third in the voting.

Including Carter-Williams, the
last 11 Rookie of the Year winners have come from teams with losing records.

The 11th overall
pick in last summer’s draft, Carter-Williams is the lowest-picked Rookie of the
Year recipient since 1987-88, when the New York Knicks’ Mark Jackson – who went
18th overall in the previous year’s draft – took home the hardware.

Carter-Williams began turning heads in the
first game of his first pro season. He posted 22 points, 12 assists, nine
steals and seven rebounds Oct. 30, as the Sixers took down the defending
champion Miami Heat, 114-110.

Afterward, Johnson took to
social media to gush about Carter-Williams’ performance.

“I just got done watching the
guy I think will be the Rookie of the Year, Michael Carter-Williams of the
76ers,” the NBA legend tweeted.

Seven months later, Johnson’s
prediction panned out.

Statistical support was on Carter-Williams’
side. He joined Oscar Robertson (1960-61) and Alvan Adams (1975-76) as the only
players to pace all rookies in scoring, rebounds and assists. On that note,
these per-game averages by Carter-Williams led all first-year players: 16.7
points, 6.3 assists, 6.2 rebounds, 1.86 steals and 34.5 minutes.

What’s more, his 4.8 defensive
rebounds per game were the most ever by a rookie guard, eclipsing the 4.4
defensive boards by Chester native Tyreke Evans during his 2009-10 Rookie of
the Year campaign with Sacramento.

Carter-Williams was named
Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month in four of the six months of the regular
season.

There’s a decent chance the
Sixers could become the first team since the Buffalo Braves (Bob McAdoo in
1972-73, and Ernie DiGregorio in 1973-74) to boast back-to-back Rookies of the
Year. Center Nerlens Noel, who missed all of last season while rehabbing a knee
injury, is eligible, as will be the slew of players the Sixers take in June’s
draft. They hold seven picks, including two in the first round.